Friday, January 04, 2013

Moar Subie!

The circumnavigation of I-465 went well, without any bits falling off or the car overheating.

Steep curves at on- and off-ramps resulted in me getting all squeamish, afraid that the Forester would tip over, since it has, relative to the Zed Drei at least, approximately the proportions of a wheeled telephone booth*.

Steering took some getting used to: A lot more power assist, plus tall and flexy front tire sidewalls, plus the age of the vehicle equaled a numb on-center feel compared to what I'm used to. Combined with the increased body roll, it's going to be a while before I get comfortable with the idea of making like Tommi Mäkinen in the thing.

Pulls good up to freeway speeds, but runs out of breath a lot sooner than I'm used to. At ~70 mph, both the Forester and the Zed Drei are turning right around 3k rpm, but if you flatten the throttle at that speed, the Bimmer will still shove you back in your seat, while the Subie just sighs and grudgingly, slowly, picks up more speed. This is to be expected from an object that weighs 500 pounds more, has 25hp less, and is the size and shape of a small garden shed.

Today I'll be changing the earl in the car, despite the sticker that says it was done 2k ago, because just because.

*Ask your parents what a "telephone booth" is, kids. Basically, back when telephones had to be connected to buildings with a wire, we put up tiny glass buildings on the street in which to attach phones that anybody could use and get their nasty germs all over. The next time that old movie The Matrix comes on the classic movie channel, look for the scene where Trinity nearly gets squooshed by the truck. That thing she's standing in is a telephone booth.

51 comments:

On phone booths: I remember a hotel my parents owned briefly in Gainesville, Florida, back in the late 1960's. The restaurant featured, in the alcove between the entrances to the men's and ladies' rooms, a beautiful phone booth, beautifully appointed in mahogany, with a small bench for comfort while making calls. A thing of beauty it was.

Q: does the Tamster actually do the changing or does a garage do it? I used to take mine to a local garage associated with a major tire manufacturer until they stripped out my oil pan drain plug and wanted to charge me $700 to replace it. I do my own now.

never, to me, about saving money, it's about seeing that Cletus doesn't cross thread the drain plug or snap off some irreplaceable bracket.

The rear sways on that are I believe hollow. Simply swapping to a solid rear sway will give you a ride you're more familiar with.

You can also get a set of coilovers for it for about a grand, a good summer project and a dramatic improvement to the ride.

yeah, when you take a top heavy vehicle and push it upwards of 70 on a regulation-diameter exit ramp, and feel the inside front lift off, and the engine race, and the posi grab and kick in, you hope that seat cushion your ass just ate was adequately clean.

Sounds like you're getting the experience I hoped for when we picked up an '02 Outback (for four times the price of yours). Alas, things fell off ours, bright green leaks occurred and oil was guzzled to the point I could've just started mixing it with the gas.

Hopefully all that bad karma was safely stored away from your Forester when we got rid of it for a Mazda.

I've been a salesman for 35 years. First thing I would check for in a new territory for the first 20 years of that was where the (relatively) safe telephone booths were. There are a few stories about that, too, concerning a pay phone near one of the "projects" in Baltimore.

"Because" IS the best reason; c.f. Tam's post on M1's and Murican cards "Because Garand".I have a local small garage do my oil changes; I bring oil (including a quart of Marvel Mystery), filters n' such and he does the actual work with me looking on and chatting. I hand him a $20 and we're done.

Tam, what year is the scooby? might want to be wary of the headgaskets if it has a 2.5L. they're known for being leaky (anywhere from a slight weepiness to OH GOD WHY IS IT SPEWING THINGS THAT MUST STAY INSIDE) if they're from the late 90s.

Laura,My 06 Forester leaks a little oil. Annoying only because I've never driven a car to 180K. The head gasket is a problem on older ones, you'll know it if it happens. A buddy had his go, and just drove it, adding oil every 1200 miles or so for another year before he sold it. The engine can take a LOT of abuse if you just know what to expect.

You could probably pull off some Ken Block action if you head out after a few people have driven through a fresh snow and packed it down before the plows could clear it...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs-jAImScms

A decent set of high performance all seasons (see Continental DWS), will probably liven it up considerably for when you're not driving on snow tires. My first thought when I went more confidence in a car's handling (after getting somewhat use to it, of course), is a good set of tires and a get set of brakes.

Given the mission statement of Scoobie-ster is to haul around people, guns, and such, at normal people speeds. A decent set of tires and brakes will at least make it a little better to the sportscar.

Glad it went well. I'd consider a coolant system flush soon, and as someone else suggested on the other post a can of HEET in the gas tank to displace any moisture.

PS: As someone under 30 around here. I can honestly say, I remember phone booths, when I was about 9 years old. After that, I remember my parents both getting cellphones and by the time I was 12, the phone booth was dead. That would have been circa 1994 (at 9) and by 1997 virtually every phone booth I can think of was gone.

I still remember a few payphone "kiosks" I guess you could all them (payphones attached to the wall of a store), but by 2001 most of those were gone too.

I’m with Tam on not crawling around under my vehicles in the driveway or street with snow on the ground. Now as to the Foresters performance and handling… http://www.andysautosport.com/performance_chips/subaru.html for a replacement chip.http://www.knfilters.com/news/news.aspx?id=1194 for a K&N air filterhttp://www.ehow.com/how_7681345_do-subaru-outback-handle-better.html to decrease weight and increase rigidity http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/stiffer-springs-and-shocks-without-lowering-iti-171664.html?s=bf9cf54a6f0372650553b507dd66fd6a& on shocks and struts…Essentially replace with new.Alloy wheels and all season radial tires.We have a well-used 1999 Outback that’s going through the replacement suspension, engine and overall drive train parts that far too many owners never do. This particular vehicle went through several owners but is still worth fixing up as a daily driver.

There's a place ~25 miles from you (Brickyard Imported Cars) that claims to have a full set of stock '05 Legacy 5 spoke alloy 17's for $85 each, with a less pretty one for a spare at $75. You could drop your tire aspect ratio quite a bit with that. They've also got some 16" 10 spokes out of an '04 for $45 each.

As for freeway entrances, I usually just keep my '93 Legacy in a lower gear until I'm up to speed. Compared to the whomping V8 in the '72, the Subie 2.2 revs to the moon.

Og: When you say "get a set of coilovers for it for about a grand" do you mean something fancy, like Konis or Teins? Because the stock suspension is coilover struts to begin with.

"might want to be wary of the headgaskets if it has a 2.5L. they're known for being leaky (anywhere from a slight weepiness to OH GOD WHY IS IT SPEWING THINGS THAT MUST STAY INSIDE) if they're from the late 90s."

The early 00's had the same problems. Subaru sells a conditioner that you add to the cooling system that is supposed to mitigate this problem.

Also be aware, the flat 4 makes it's best power in the higher RPM range and is an absolute pig between 1K and 3K RPM, so go ahead and rev it up.

NOTHING will make it handle and accelerate like the Zed (a feature not a bug when the roads get slick), but I don't imagine there's any way you are going to confuse the two from behind the wheel.

I am quite fond of my little yellow Scoobytruck (03 Baja). The Mustang mostly stays under its cover this time of year (because convertible, not so much because of road conditions in Raleigh NC).

Phone booths (telephone boxes here) are still all the rage here. Just not in the street. I have one friend who has it set up in his hall as a place to hang his cordless house phone. The other? It's in her bathroom, as a shower cubicle.

Yrro: Yeah, I put KYB Excel-Gs on my '93 Legacy when I got it. Of course, since after removing them, I discovered that they would compress by hand, and stay there, and the right rear rubber biscuit strut mount at the top had ripped completely out of the frame... yeah, anything at all would have been an improvement at that point. :D

(The triangular frame that mounts to the car, not ripped out of the car completely. Replacing the strut mount solved the problem entirely.)

I don't know the details, but there is supposed to be a fuse you can pull to dis-engage the rear axle from the drive line, which turns it into a FWD. Useful if you need it towed for some reason, because it can be done by a wheel-lift. No need for dollies or a flat bed.I never had to tow one in the years I drove a tow truck, so I never got to check it out. None of my coworkers had, either.

My neighbor had an '04 for sale earlier this year, and wanted $10k. Looked like it was just off the showroom floor, complete with LARGE OB/Biden in '08 sticker.

IS THERE ANY WAY OF LOWERING THE CENTEROF GRAVITY BELOW THE METACENTRIC HEIGHTOF THE VEHICLE ? SUGGEST BALLASTING DOWN HAVE THE FORMULA TONS PER INCH/IMMERSION FOR VESSELS SIMILAR PRINCIPLES BUT YOUR RESULTS MAY VARY

When we met , Mrs. Drang was driving a Subaru wagon, an '86, IIRC. Nice little car. Timing belt gave out every 40k, like clockwork. Mechanics told us that was the one known flaw with Subies, have they fixed it? (I heard somewhere they went to chains instead of belts...)

>Drang - I think that was with the early 2.2L motors. My 2.5L is scheduled for 100K between timing belts, and since it's a DOHC, you don't want to break a timing belt (new valves, possible damage to pistons, head, valve guides, for starters - never happened to me even though I stretched one to 112K). Not sure, but I think they use chain(s) for the 3.0L O-6. >Larry - You may call your 03 a Scoobytruck, but it's nothing more than an Outback wagon with an identity crisis!- JT

I'll be damned if I'm lying on my back on snow-covered gravel to save a couple bucks.Ah, memories... I remember once shoveling the snow out of a spot in the driveway so I'd have a dry spot to lay on while I crawled under my Courier to change the slave cylinder on the tranny. Because I could barely afford a rebuilt cylinder and could NOT afford to pay someone else to do it.

As to changing the earl, shortly after I got the VFR800, I did that, and the coolant; no matter the numbers said they had some time left. Seeing the coolant, damn glad I did, too.

"LOL, you should have seen me the first day when I went from at GTO to a Yukon... Thought I was gonna roll it getting back on the interstate!!! o^O"

Wouldn't be the first one. I righted more than one of those that I found laying on it's side in the middle of the freeway. The Yukon/Tahoe seemed easy to tip over during hard lane changes. The equivalent full size Bronco/Expedition not so much, as I never saw one flipped. My '86 Bronco 302 was driven like a giant sports car, and impressed me greatly.

My mother drove a Subaru from before I was six until last year, a bit over 25 years, going through ~5 separate cars, all purchased used and, until the last, generally run pretty hard.

I've been driving a WRX for almost a decade. I don't drive much or terribly hard, and I confess to rather a lot of benign neglect on my poor riceburner. I will miss it terribly when it goes, though: I got stuck with a Ford Focus for a couple days about two years ago due to some other asshole's thoughtfulness in wiping out the rear corner of my (parked!) car. Nice enough car, I guess, but handling was depressing and the driving experience was so thrilling I had trouble staying awake on my two mile commute.

I'm glad your new-to-you Forester is treating you well, Tam. Here's hoping for many years of faithful service.

"Ask your parents what a "telephone booth" is, kids. Basically, back when telephones had to be connected to buildings with a wire, we put up tiny glass buildings on the street in which to attach phones that anybody could use and get their nasty germs all over. The next time that old movie The Matrix comes on the classic movie channel, look for the scene where Trinity nearly gets squooshed by the truck. That thing she's standing in is a telephone booth."